Synopses & Reviews
In this lyrical novel, two young lovers, Vladimir and Alexandra (known fondly to each other as Vovka and Sashka), are separated from one another. Vovka has gone off to war, forcing the two to keep their love alive through a passionate exchange of letters.
But as their correspondence continues, it becomes clear that their separation is chronological as well as geographical—that their extraordinary romance is actually created out of, as well as kept alive by, their yearning epistolary exchange, which defies not only space but time.
With this contrapuntal testament to the delirious, transcendent power of love, the most celebrated Russian author of his generation has created a masterpiece of modern fiction.
Review
"Mikhail Shishkin is a contemporary Russian novelist whose style is remarkably solid and consistent across his oeuvre. His works could have been written any time between today and the late 19th century--and this is especially true when there are no obvious historical markers. In this epistolary novel, the love letters exchanged by Volodya and Sasha have to...--
Review
PRAISE FOR THE
LIGHT AND THE DARK"Often sings with powerfully estranged, original observations... minutiae and grand philosophy collide on every page."--Boris Fishman, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"With an epistolary novel, Mikhail Shishkin demonstrates that he is heir to Tolstoy, Pasternak and Grossman. Mr. Shishkin has created a bewitching potion of reality and fantasy, of history and fable, and of lonely need and joyful consolation. An exquisite novel... His sovereignty is over the invisible and the timeless. Mr. Shishkin traces this sad story with great beauty and finesse."--Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
Review
"Whatever the secret of the time scheme, and however magic-realist or metaphysical it might be, it contributes to the book's powerful treatment of love and the vividness of being alive, underscored by the reality of ever-present morality--Shishkin is a writer with a compelling sense of the skull beneath the skin."--Phil Baker, The Sunday Times
Review
"There is a lyrical, poetic quality to much of Shishkin's writing... This is certainly the most complicated, protean book I've ever reviewed and one jammed with cultural allusions and ideas."--Tibor Fischer, Standpoint Magazine
Review
"Shishkin's prodigious erudition, lapidary phrasing and penchant for generic play are conspicuous components of his art... These charactersitics do indeed ally him with Nabokov, as he does have faith in the written word... And yet, unlike Nabokov, Joyce and many of their postmodern acolytes, Shishkin is unabashedly and unironically sentimental."--Boris Dralyuk, Times Literary Supplement
Review
"Shishkin writes with an admirable clarity and economy that not only brings each character's story to vivid life, but creates a melancholy tone. The book is full of echoes and allusions, for instance to Gogol and Shakespeare, not as if the author is playing literary games to amuse himself but completely naturally, as if these characters live with their culture the way real people actually do... The Light and the Dark is an immersive reading experience that lingers in the mind long after closing the book. If at first it seems loosely plotted and full of diversions, with a direct sentimentality usually avoided in literary novels, in the end it has an authenticity born out of a voice that is both natural and lyrical."--Michel Basilieres, The Toronto Star
Review
"Shishkin is arguably Russia's greatest living novelist... his writing is richly textured and innovative and his themes are universal: love and death, pain and happiness, war and peace.... Shishkin's writing is both philosophically ambitious and sensually specific, evoking the rain on a dacha roof, the smell of blossoming lime trees, or the stink of human corpses."--Phoebe Taplin, The Guardian
Review
"Mikhail Shishkin is the Ian McEwan of Russia. A prize-winning writer who enjoys stunning commercial and critical success, he's also a literary celebrity in a country that still knows how to celebrate its author-heroes. His latest novel, The Light and the Dark, in its brilliant translation, is striking proof that great Russian literature didn't die with Dostoevsky. The prose is lapidary, the evocation of history and the present razor-sharp. A wonderful book: it is filled with wonder."--Monocle Magazine
About the Author
The only author to win all three major Russian literary prizes (including the Russian Booker Prize), Mikhail Shiskin is one of the most acclaimed contemporary Russian literary figures. The
Guardian said of Shishkin’s writing: “richly textured and innovative. . . arguably Russia's greatest living novelist.”
Shishkin's novel The Light and the Dark was hailed in The Times Literary Supplement as “wonderfully lucid and concise,” reaching “over the heads of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky to the tradition of Pushkin.” The Guardian said it was “both philosophically ambitious and sensually specific, evoking the rain on a dacha roof, the smell of blossoming lime trees, or the stink of human corpses . . . The Light and the Dark is about everything.”
The Light and the Dark is an evocative and ambitious reimagining of a time-honored precept: two young people in love, separated by circumstance.
When Vovka joins the army to fight The Boxer Rebellion, resolving to “choose himself a war,” he and Sasha write passionate letters to each other to feed their love. As we are drawn further into the separate physical realities of Vovka and Sasha, Shiskin gracefully unfolds the truly great and mystical nature of the gulf between them, and reveals a connection that transcends historical and temporal bounds.
Sensuous, daring, and poignant, The Light and the Dark is an astonishing accomplishment and an affecting read.